Eat Your Carrots

Big Bangs In Billingham

So did you all see on the news today about the explosion at the Terra works in Billingham? It was second only to the fact that Prescott has given up his grace and favour mansion in terms of coverage on the breakfast news this morning. Mind you I think the press were really playing it up - I think they were really hoping for a second Buncefield but it turned out to be a pretty minor incident after the initial "bang!" I can't believe the amount of attention it got. And I'm always intrigued by witness accounts. This bloke in Hartlepool for example, who claims that a roaring sound (from almost 8 miles away) was "absolutely deafening". Given the way sound intensity degrades over distance, it must have literally deafened (permanently) everyone who actually lives close by. Another "witness" on the radio news this morning declared that they "thought someone had crashed a plane into the plant". Sensationalising or what?
The plant is right next to where I work, but it didn't even buy me any time off work, so minor and contained was the incident. I must admit that I took my camera to work today in case I saw any "famous" news reporters camped out outside the gates. There were plenty of news trucks there, but I didn't catch sight of anyone I recognised. I know, I'm really sad.

How Stupid Can People Be?

While it may come as a surprise to us laid back, don't-care-too-much-about-anything westerners that Muslims could be so offended by a bunch of cartoons, it seems just totally insane that once you have realised how upset they are about it that more and more people would publish them. In some hair-brained show of "solidarity", all they have succeeded in doing is to add more fuel to the fires. And mostly they have done so to the deep despair of their own governments and brought no good upon their own national interests. When will people (and in particular, newspapers) ever learn?
Having said that, I am shocked by the violent response that this has stirred up. In particular the march in London where people carried banners calling for death and destruction of those responsible and for for a repeat of 7/7. And yet no one was arrested. So what exactly is the (new) law against inciting racial/religious hatred? I realise that these people are in the minority, but actions like that, and pictures and news reports of the violent reactions in other countries, makes me rather fearful for the future.

Sven Goran Eriksson Sting

There seems to be no depths to which the tabloid press won't stoop in order to get a story. The entrapment of Sven Goran Eriksson was an elaborately executed hoax in which no expense was spared. I guess they'll have recouped it in sales for both the story and all its follow-up coverage. But what has the main crux of this hoax revealed? That SGE is like every one of us, and would move to another job given sufficient financial encouragement. Oh, what a shock. Headline news indeed.
Do the press think he should devote his whole life and future to the England set up? Loyalty is a double-edged sword, and if we hadn't qualified for the World Cup (and if we don't perform well in it) SGE would most likely find himself out of work anyway. The England set-up wouldn't feel any sort of debt of loyalty towards him. He at least is seeing out the job-role to which he is currently tasked before he would think of moving on. Many others, and I suspect that includes the vast majority of tabloid journalists, would leave at a seconds notice given a sufficiently large financial carrot.
What a lot of fuss about nothing.

Open All Hours

So pubs etc. can now serve alcohol 24 hours a day here in the UK. I'm intrigued as to how the government thinks that that will reduce binge drinking and yobbish behaviour. I don't think your average lad or ladette goes out with the mindset "OK, I have to drink n pints tonight and I only have 4 hours to do it...". Certainly when I used to go out and get hammered it was just "finished that drink, now for the next one...". Longer hours would simply mean more beer consumed. The limiting factor in how much I drank was that time to drink it ran out. Continental style opening hours won't lead to a continental style approach to drinking; it's not the hours that are the problem, it's the people. We know plenty of people who's sole purpose on a night out is to get totally hammered. If they don't, it was a wasted night. And if you don't get hammered too, you're boring.
BTW, I stopped this behaviour over 20 years ago, after a very memorable episode with too much beer and a garlic-sauce-laden kebab.

... Baked In A Pie

I was listening to Radio 4 as I drove home last night. There was some guy on extolling the virtues of his favourite bird (as in feathered flying creature). He described its iridescent plumage, its bill, its courting behaviour and how it cares for its "spouse" and babies. It was all so very nice. The bird, it turned out, was a Rook, not everyone's obvious choice as "favourite bird".
At the end of the show the continuity announcer declared "And tomorrow Chris eats his favourite bird in 'Summer Rook Pie'".
I was so disgusted I almost crashed the car.

Civic Duty

I'd like to introduce you to the old ICI office building in Billingham. It's close to where I work, I drive past it twice or more a day, every day. It's been more or less in this derelict state for the whole 10 years I've been here, though it gradually gets worse and worse as the local scallies set more and more fires in it. Last Wednesday I was virtually trapped at work as 10 engines attended the latest blaze here.
In a situation like this, shouldn't the company do the decent thing and just demolish the block? Or can the authorities issue some sort of "compulsory demolition order" (at ICI's expense of course). The building will never serve any purpose again - it's been empty for at least 12 years so far, and nobody took it up when it was in a better state. I'm wondering if they even pay rates on it. Do you pay rates on a derelict empty building? If not then it's a disgrace, given how many times the fire service seem to be there.
Come on ICI (or Avecia or Terra or whoever inherited the building)
PULL IT DOWN!

---

Update: Apparently (according to the news) the local council are bringing legal action to have the property's owners demolish the building.

Jude Dumps Sienna

You'd think with 20,000+ dead in an earthqauke disaster that the Sunday tabloids could run a better headline than "Jude Dumps Sienna". But no, I guess the glitzy world of celebrity holds more appeal to them than the horrors that go on in the real world.
Keep your heads in the sand, guys.

Bomb Hoax Stupidity

If it's not bad enough that we have extremists blowing people to bits and jumpy policemen shooting innocent people dead, we also have idiots who phone in bomb hoaxes - presumably to add some "fun" to their sad little lives. On Saturday the football match between Darlington & Middlesbrough, a testimonial game for Craig Liddle who had played for both clubs, was abandoned at half time because of a bomb hoax.
No doubt the authorities were pretty sure that it was a hoax - last time I checked the extremists preferred to just blow people to pieces with no warning - but they really had no option than to abandon the game and evacuate the stadium. I'm sure we're set to have a summer of similar stupidity, it actually surprised me that no one tried to get the Test Match abandoned in this way. Perhaps the folks of London have been touched by the tragedies to such and extent that they cannot stoop so low. Out here in the provinces it maybe hasn't sunk in with these idiots in quite the same way.

Shoot To Kill

I noticed yesterday that some of the low quality tabloids were gloating at the shooting of the man on the tube on Friday. "Got the bastard" and "one down, three to go" were two that sprung to mind. I wonder what headlines they'll run today now that we know the man was totally innocent.
Apparently Mr Menezes came out of a house that was under surveillance because of a suspected link to Thursday's bombing. I guess that information was flawed, or else by bizarre coincidence he was cohabiting with some genuine suspects. Whatever the circumstances one thing is clear, no one can afford to do anything other than comply fully when challenged by the police these days. That's fine for those of us who fully understand English and who have nothing to hide. But what about immigrants (like Mr Menezes ) and even tourists, who may misread the situation and not even understand that the men are police (they were not uniformed after all). I think it makes London a rather scary place to visit.

No Sympathy

There was an article in the paper and again on the news about speed cameras. Seems they're making headlines again with the election coming up, and Michael Howard vowing to cut camera numbers. Anyway, somewhere in Staffordshire is a stretch of road with 9 cameras in 1 and 1/2 miles. For some reason they seemed to think this outrageous, but doesn't it just mean that they want to keep you at the speed limit for the whole 1 1/2 miles? Don't all habitual speeders simply slow down at a camera and then speed up again? With that in mind maybe having 9 in a row was the only way to discourage that habit.
A local resident said "It's ridiculous, I've been caught by them three times". Well, you know what, you obviously deserved it for being not just a habitual speeder but for being so stupid. You know they're there, you got caught once, then twice... surely getting caught there three times says something about you?